A 6000 year old stone silkworm chrysalis was found in Shicun site, Xiaxian County, Shanxi Province, by the School of Archaeology of Jilin University

Date:2020-11-09    Times:

    On November 8, the column "news studio" of CCTV news channel reported the progress of archaeological work in Xiaxian County, Shanxi Province, by focusing on the stone carving silkworm chrysalis found 6000 years ago at Shicun site in Xiaxian County, Shanxi Province.

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The report mentioned that the Shicun site in Xia County is located in the meandering zone of the Qinglong River, about 1 km northwest of Shicun, Peijie Town, Xia County, Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province.Starting in 2019, the School of Archaeology of Jilin University, with the strong support of the National Cultural Relics Bureau and the Shanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau, has jointly conducted archaeological excavations on the Shicun site with the Shanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute and Yuncheng Cultural Relics Workstation. The early Yangshao settlement site found in Shicun site is about 7km away from Yuncheng Yanchi, which is the nearest early Yangshao settlement site excavated on a large scale. One of the three stone chrysalis excavated this time is light brown in shape and size like a jujube stone. It is engraved with strip patterns with sharp objects.Its excavations not only provide an example of the half artificially cut carbonized silkworm cocoons excavated in Xiyin Village, Xia County in 1926 by the father of Chinese archaeology, Li Ji, but also about 500 years earlier.

 

Duan Tianjing, deputy dean of the school of Archaeology at Jilin University, said that the discovery of the stone silkworm chrysalis means that as early as the early Yangshao period, Dongzhuang ancestors probably had mastered the technology of silkworm rearing and silk reeling, providing important clues for the study of the origin and spread of silk.